In Unhiring Ronna McDaniel, NBC Made the Right Move for the Wrong Reason
It’s heartening that pushback from journalists forced a reversal, but the network’s hiring decision was shameful in the first place.
NBC Cites Balloon ‘Threat’ in Fawning Coverage of NORAD
NBC’s framing is structured so that the new technology NORAD is seeking is portrayed as an important part of America’s defense.
Framing Disability as Disqualification in Fetterman/Oz Debate
For the election press corps, ableism is not so easily overcome, and style is always likely to trump substance.
Media Allow Republicans to Use ‘Unity’ as Tool of Division
Media lay out the narrative the GOP will work for the next two years to build: that Democrats are the ones sowing division by refusing to work together to get things done.
ACTION ALERT: NBC Garbles Graph on Democrats’ Electability
Election Focus 2020: Please contact NBC and tell them to correct a February 2 graphic showing two of four Democratic candidates losing to Trump.
NBC News Whitewashes Colombia’s Right-Wing President
NBC News readers were given no indication of Ivan Duque’s unpopularity or the opposition movement against him.
Previewing the Democratic Debates: Every Flavor of NBC, Trusting Corporate Media on Climate
Election Focus 2020: Despite new nods to diversity, there is little evidence so far to suggest that the debates will be any less circumscribed and shallow than those in the past.
Calling Racism by Its Real Name
That diverse people need to be in the room, that reporting involves listening to and learning from them—now there’s a radical idea.
WaPo, USA Today, NBC Go Full Breitbart on ‘Prisoners Eating Steak’ Non-Story
Several corporate media outlets thought it newsworthy to point out that prisoners at Coleman federal prison in Wildwood, Florida, received a routine holiday meal that was slightly above their normal, bottom-of-the-barrel provisions.
NBC News’ Breezy Whitewash of White Supremacist Group
News managers feel the need to highlight, with little if any criticism or context, pro-Trump extremists who’ve been emboldened by his campaign and subsequent election.
Freedom of Speech Doesn’t Guarantee the Right to a Megaphone
Every person you see on air is there because someone chose to put them there, and is taking the place of someone else who might be there.
Every Person You See on Air, Someone Chose to Put Them There
Every person you see on air is there because someone chose to put them there, and is taking the place of someone else who might be there.
Signs Look Grim for Media Picking the Side of Liberty and Dissent
Will they keep alive a space for dissent and critical questioning in the face of a White House that declares itself indifferent to rules about conflicts of interest, among many other things, and that threatens revenge on those it calls “enemies”?
Lester Holt Asks Zero Questions About Poverty, Abortion, Climate Change
Presidential debates do as much to showcase corporate media priorities as they do the candidates. They provide a snapshot into what the media, in this case represented by NBC’s Lester Holt, prioritizes as issues worthy of discussion.
Dakota Access Blackout Continues on ABC, NBC News
As of this writing, no TV outlet included in the Nexis database has mentioned that independent journalist Amy Goodman was charged with trespassing for reporting on the pipeline protest. Nor has any national newspaper reported on North Dakota’s legal assault on newsgathering.
Meet the Press Grills WikiLeaks on Source, Ignores Substance of DNC Emails
Meet the Press’s Chuck Todd asked WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange a total of eight questions, all of which were about alleged foreign hacking of the DNC, never asking about the substance of the leaks.
Comcast-Funded Website Plugs Comcast-Owned TV Show Promoting Comcast-Backed Trade Pact
News “explainer” Vox ran a seemingly innocuous write-up on Friday of President Barack Obama appearing on NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon the night before, “slow jamming” the benefits of the highly controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership. It would be funny if it weren’t a borderline parody of everything wrong with corporate-owned “new media”:
Turning Fake ISIS Plots Into Real ISIS Scares
The AP published a thrilling account of how the FBI, in concert with Moldovan authorities, “disrupted” a smuggling ring that was supposedly trying to sell “nuclear material” to ISIS and other terror organizations over a five-year span. The tale made news across the English-speaking world. There was only one problem: At no point did the multiple iterations of the AP’s reporting indicate that anyone belonging to or connected to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (aka ISIL or Daesh) had any contact with the smugglers.
The Fake News Food Chain
It’s a problem when presidential candidates from a major political party are getting their information about the world from a news outlet that evidently can’t tell the difference between a sub-Onion hoax site and actual news.
Meet the Press on Clinton: Focusing on Image, Distracting From Issues
The consensus on Meet the Press is that Hillary Clinton’s problem is that she’s not her husband, she lacks his “amazing campaign skills” and is “not very defined for people.” If only she could get some credit for Bill’s “economic legacy.”
But for many of the likely voters who have backed off from Clinton, her problem isn’t that she’s not enough like her husband…but rather that she’s too much like him.
